Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-07-01
STANFORD'S MAIL.
Character of the Innumerable Missivt
Received by the Benevolent senator.

Senator Leland Stanford, who is a
frequent visitor to New York. employs
a sharp-witted ex-journalist in Wash
ington rs his private secretary to slit
out of his daily mail the letters of cranks,
dead-beats and beggars, and keeps three
or four shorthand writers busily en-
gagged in preparing the answers to those
that require attention. The mass Of let
tiers that are poured in upon the Senator
from the post-office, morning and even
ing, is so great that it would be appal-
ling to man less methodical in his
habits or less able to employ competent
assistance. They come from all sorts
and conditions of people, but those who
have something to sell are among the
most persistent of the Senator's cor
respondents.
II believe the Senator would OWE
one-half of the land in the country if he |
bought all that wa, offered" said his
private secretary. II don't believe
there are many land-poor men left be-
tween the two oceans whom we have
not heard from. Ana we are always
assured that big fortu ne is impatiently
waiting for the Senator to pick up. But
it is not land alone that Mr.. Stamford $
correspondents offer to sell him. Every
person who has "a rare bargain in any
thing and who has bored his friends
and pestered every body else whom ne
could get at and failed to dispose OF it,
unsuccessful spectators of every sort,
projectors of new railroads who have
got to the ends of their ropes but have
not got their lines completed to any
where, organizers of financial, COM
mercal and manufacturing enterp cises,
to say nothing of the numberless solicit
tors for aid for all sorts of educational,
benevolent and religious institutions
that are in financial straits, all write 20
him."
And these letters do not all come from
American correspondents. The fame
of Senator Stanford's millions and of
his more than princely generosity has
gone beyond the sea, and brings him
every week great packages of letters
bearing foreign postmarks. A curious
one received few days ago was dated
, at St. Petersburg, written in bad French
: and signed by man who said that he
: was u Russian Count, who offered to
sell great slice of the Cars empire.
have forgotten how many millions of
acres he said there were. The beauties
of this vast domain, its untold agri-
5 cultural and mineral resources and th'
{ -, I,,l ali 70
described by master hand. IncloseC
: with the letter was formidable-look
inc official certificate, covered all owe
- with seals and attestations, setting fortl
that the writer had II right to sell tn
# territory he offered, and the names o
e high Russian officials and representa-
g tives of foreign governments in ).
e Petersburg were given, to whom Sen
IS ator Stanford was referred and invited
Il to write or telegraph in regard to tn
: Counts responsibility. The Senate
d will not probably make the purchas
h this year.
4 Perhaps one-half the letters that com
d in Senator Stanford's mail are fro;
IL women, and study of this part OF h
u mail reveals some curious phases (
er human nature and discloses son
strange workings of the human min'
IL 1t is interesting to note how nine out
IS ten of these female correspondents beg
or their communications with the san
ut stereotype sentences or phrases:
il, know that you will consider it pr
en- sumptuous in me to write to yon.
he the writer is married woman s.
u always declares that she "writes I'll
Y letter without the knowledge OF h
husband"
A popularity of the women's lette
is that they go all around Robin Hood
-. barn before they come to the thing tn
want to say. A woman who want
,ld money enough to buy new piano,
- stead of saying so right out, prefac
"a her request with n narrative of her fa
''' lily history, history of the piano S
ie had the usage it had been subjected
GU its getting out of tame recently, !
ma efforts to restore it and the cost. III
IL was followed by profusion of excu'
7in for addressing letter to the Senat
ich a re-recital of her trials and struggl
tn and, finally, after wading through pas
IS of irrelevant matter, the request for
ra- money was found by the reader in
.erS last two or three lines.-Z. L. WI
rs in Phtladeiphia Press.
attn . "